One of the biggest problems Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin players face at the moment isn’t the rearranged enemies, or tricky bosses - it’s the durability system.
The first iteration of Dark Souls 2 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 was 30fps, and weapons and armor would slowly degrade at a manageable rate. But the recent current-gen version of Dark Souls 2 runs at 60fps, doubling the amount of animation frames. Unfortunately, because of how the new versions been coded, this also means items will degrade as twice as fast as the normal, meaning it’s all too common to find yourself confronting tough enemies faced with little more than rusty dagger to hand.
Now, developer From Software has addressed concerns by saying that a patch will be released to resolve the issue. A Bandai Namco representative told Kotaku: “The fix will be issued for PS4, Steam and Xbox One, and will be apparent for people running the game at 60fps as the durability decrease rate is linked to the frame rate. We are still working on the exact release date for the patch, which will also fix additional issues not just durability, and will follow up with the date as soon as possible.”
Many players are assuming the patch will revert the durability system to how it played on the original 30fps version of Dark Souls. Yet the patch notes say it’s only a fix for a specific bug. This bug is the one that degrades weapons when used on corps or friendly characters. So it could be that the code which calculates durability loss will be tweaked; but an easier way to address the problem might simply be to double the durability of gear, or halve the loss rate. Whatever way From decides to go about resolving the issue, a lot of gamers will be breathing a sigh of relief once the update has been rolled out.
Brain Kale wrote the review for the original version Dark Souls 2 for Continue Play, awarding it 8/10 but concluding that it didn’t live up to the highs of its predecessor. “New players will get an amazing experience, and I highly encourage everyone to play the game,” Brian said in his Dark Souls 2 review. “Despite its faults, Dark Souls 2 is still likely to be one of the best games released this year. It’s engrossing, it has plenty of replay value, and there’s likely plenty of secrets locked away in its depths waiting to be uncovered.”
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin bundles the original game with all of the available DLC, improves the game’s graphics for newer hardware, and adds a new boss character and NPC to the game. The biggest change from the original version is that the placement of enemies has been changed, meaning even seasoned veterans should experience a fresh challenge.
You can watch the Dark Souls 2 Announcement Trailer below and judge for yourself whether you’re ready to take up the challenge.
